Sunday, November 7, 2010

What is the Penalty for NOT Recognizing a Gift from GOD?

Many people in churches and as leaders are ignorant intentionally or otherwise of those who are among them as Gifts of God. If they have been badly taught, if they have been blinded by Satan. I'm not talking about them. I am talking about people who know better, people who are set in leadership and who for ego need intentionally ignore a gift among them. These kind of people were condemned by Jesus. They knew the gift was among them, but they didn't recognize it. Or worse, tried to trip up or trick the gift, marginalizing it. This is Sin...or is Jesus wrong?

Jesus spoke often of this.
They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family." Matthew 13:57


I have often thought of what it must be like in the homes of Reinhard Bonnke, Chuck Pierce, Kim Clement, Bob Jones or Bill Johnson. When those he grew up with and his own family who knew him "When" are around, is there any honor? If Jesus is an example, probably not.

He did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:28
I suspect that when these modern prophets sit around the Thanksgiving Table there are no words of Prophecy given that matter to those in attendance. It has to do with the inability to receive. Unbelief. SO, the question is, is it a sin to NOT BELIEVE?

Even if a Prophet or a worker of the Miraculous were among people, if they were NOT willing to recognize and embrace them as being from the Father, they received condemnation from JESUS!

Luke 10:13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.
Note, His condemnation is not about HIM, it's about NOT recognizing and repenting when the gift is operating among them. AND He is really hard on Capernaum, his adopted home town after he abandoned Nazereth. He had a house there yet people living up and down the street didn't recognize him. Some did, but they came from out of town. Letting the paralyzed down thru Jesus's roof. Mark 2:1-12

It was the Religious who wouldn't recognize the gifts among them that Jesus was hardest on. Look at what he says about the Pharisees of the day:

Matt 23:31-33 "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?"


Jesus was really hard on the Blindness, intentional or otherwise of the religious leaders of his day.


Matt 15:14 "They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch."

Matt 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."

Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless you are BORN AGAIN you cannot SEE the KINGDOM of GOD. What is it that the intentionally blind can't see? Or worse WILL NOT see? They cannot see the principles, the operation, the manifestations, the intentions, the freedom, the giftings in people. They only see their own paradigm and close their eyes to all else. What of this? What do they see?

Mark 7:5-7 He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'
Bluntly, they make it up, they do not receive the Kingdom around them. They have built a little fiefdom of nothing and as gatekeepers keep themselves protected from the Kingdom reality all around them.

IF Jesus came again doing mighty works manifesting all the ministry gifts and all the Spritual Gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 in power, even today, He would not be received as who he is in His home church. Or among those who knew him coming up.

It's true today. I testify that those who know the Prophet, Teacher, Evangelist, Pastor or Apostle best reject and deny them most. They become Nazareth. They become Capernaum. It's a vicious cycle. I don't know many who can. It happens to me. I am received in the Ministry Gift I am graced for by those out of town, by those out of country, by those who didn't know me when. Those who know me best, family, friends and colleagues receive me least. I sometimes wonder why I even bother. Why not go where I am received? Why even bother with those who don't accept the gift? Shouldn't I do as Jesus instructed?

Matthew 10:14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised. It has always been so....

Matthew 10: 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’c]">[c]

37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

As a prophet, I want to impart, to bestow a prophets reward to all who will receive. To those who won't...well. Move on. This is for my brother Terrance.

4 comments:

Stephen said...

Gene,

While I understand the gist of your post, have you stopped to consider that the reason some people are resistant to 'the gift', is that they've seen so much of the hype and misuse of the prophetic and the office of prophet, that they've grown weary of it all? Just another way looking at it.

Peace

Gene said...

Stephen, yeah, I guess you are right, I'm guessing it was that way back when Jesus showed up. There were lots of "Christs" running around. People were resistant to the gift. So much hype and misuse by those fake Christs. They were so weary they dismissed him.

So, was that a sin, to miss Jesus?

That is the question. AND, if that, what about other gifts missed by so called Christians?

You didn't actually get the gist

denise g. said...

this blog says so much more in the spirit than alot of us will know...because the Prophets are going to the streets and the land and other areas because the church rejects them...they will really start to realize their rising up at this time outside the church but also going into the church to encourage uplift edify, change and prophesy at times...i may not have said all this right....but it is what i see at times...not only the prophet as guiding the church but watchman over the cities......

Anonymous said...

Ich wollte nur einen kurzen Kommentar zu sagen, ich bin froh, dass ich einen Blog zu machen. Dank